SAN ANTONIO — When Ed Cooley came to Providence College from Fairfield three years ago, he certainly had a spot in the NCAA Tournament in his sights.

SAN ANTONIO — When Ed Cooley came to Providence College from Fairfield three years ago, he certainly had a spot in the NCAA Tournament in his sights.

Cooley promised Friar fans a chance to return to the sport’s biggest stage and while even he admits that this year’s appearance was “a little ahead of schedule,” that didn’t make Friday night’s 79-77 loss to North Carolina any easier to swallow.

“I’m hurting for our seniors,” he said “I’m hurting for our organization. We’ve been pounding rocks for years at Providence College and we’ll continue to pound rocks until we win this whole thing. My goal coming to Providence was to play with the best teams in the country every single night. We’re not there yet.”

Cooley inherited a few key pieces from the Keno Davis train wreck in Bryce Cotton and Kadeem Batts and then sprinkled in a few of his transfers and recruits. With a full boat Cooley did think this season’s team could be a special one but that was before Kris Dunn injured his shoulder at the start of November.

Once the Friars regrouped, they ended up coming together and giving their fans a treat in a Big East Tournament championship. Continuing the run with some NCAA magic wasn’t in the cards but Cooley certainly has something to build on.

“They gave it up for us this year,” he said of his players. “They could have easily packed it in, easily packed it in. For us to do what we did, they can’t take away our championship. We earned that.”

Both Cotton and Batts weren’t sure what to make of Cooley and his coaching staff when they came to PC and both have said they considered transferring. Over time, however, the group began to trust each other and became a team.

“It’s still sinking in as we speak,” Cotton said of his career-ending defeat. “It’s been a crazy year, so many ups and downs. Even though this hurts we still have a lot to be thankful for. But right now this definitely hurts a lot.”

Singing Cotton’s praises

The Tar Heels had heard a lot about Cotton but said afterwards they weren’t ready for the onslaught of 3-pointers, spin moves in the lane and quick moves to the rim that he threw at them all night. Cotton’s 36 points tied a record for the most points ever scored against North Carolina in NCAA tourney play.

“I had never seen Bryce play before and he hit a lot of tough shots and is a great player with a great supporting cast,” said forward J.P. Tokoto.

Despite Cotton doing everything he could to grab a win, the Heels hung tough and made the winning plays at the end. No one stepped up bigger than Marcus Paige, the Heels’ point guard who tried to shadow Cotton and also hit two monster 3-pointers down the stretch.

“He had a phenomenal game,” said Paige. “It seemed like whenever they needed a basket, he came through for them.”

Asked if Cotton’s career-best 36 point night was the best he’s seen, Cooley made one last push to insist few players in the country are as talented.

“I’ve seen Bryce perform like that in practice but when you get to this stage and you’re able to do that, wow,” Cooley said. “I’ve been saying the whole year I think Bryce is one of the top guards in all of America. For whatever reason he didn’t get the national love. I think today if there is somebody in the tournament that does that, they would be considered Superman. We’ve played against tough competition all year. I thougth he was a legit first round (NBA) pick tonight.”

Big East tally

The Big East cashed its second ticket to this weekend’s third round games with Creighton’s victory over Louisiana-Lafayette at the AT&T Center in the day’s afternoon session. Doug McDermott led the way with 30 points and the Bluejays will face Baylor on Sunday.

Villanova became the first Big East team to move on with its 20-point win over Milwaukee. The Wildcats will play former Big East rival Connecticut Saturday in Buffalo. The Big East’s first team to lose was Xavier, which dropped a first round game to North Carolina State.

A foot in both camps

When Kate Revens saw the NCAA matchup come up on Sunday night between PC and UNC, she knew she had to somehow get to San Antonio.

Revens, a Warwick native, was a star softball player at Providence who graduated in 2010. A year later she enrolled at law school at North Carolina, graduating in 2013. She now works for the Rhode Island attorney general’s office but took a day off to get to watch both of her teams square off against each other.

“I’ve been a Friar fan for as long as I can remember and have gone to the games with my father since I was 5 years old I think,” Revens said. “I couldn’t get to the (Madison Square) Garden last week so I knew I had to find a way to San Antonio.”

Revens and her father, David, drove to LaGuardia Airport in the wee hours of Friday morning to catch a plane to Houston and then onto San Antonio. Her two uncles, Jack and Mark, are also here to watch the game. PC sold the majority of its ticket allotment of 350 in the last few days.

Asked which team she would cheer for, Revens laughed “definitely Providence. My Dad and my uncles wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t.”

The Revenses were among a crowd that appeared larger in the second of two sessions. The afternoon doubleheader attracted 12,895 fans in the 18,500-seat AT&T Center.